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In the first decades of the 20th century, if you lived west of the Rocky Mountains, one of the best bargains around was a bowl of cheap noodles, served up for a dime at a Chinese or Japanese “noodle joint”.  Aside from the noodles, these establishments had other attractions. They stayed open late into the early morning hours, had private booths with doors that closed, and usually offered strong drink, louche entertainments and the possibility of lively company.

Hello, Brain Health Ambassadors! A new book landed in my post office box and I immediately thought of all of you. The Official MIND Diet: A Scientifically Based Program to Lose Weight and Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease by Dr. Martha Clare Morris with Laura Morris and Jennifer Ventrelle is a follow-up to Dr. Morris’ first book in 2015 Diet For the MIND. I am excited to be giving away 3 copies of this book to paying subscribers.

Hello, dewy dust bunnies, and welcome to another edition of the The Don’t Buy List! Last week the wonderful folks over at Embedded asked me to pick one “defining” post of 2022, and this TikTok from Julia Fox — the one where she says “aging is in” — came to mind. As I told Embedded: It perfectly captures the spirit of beauty culture in 2022. The vibe is performative push-back, baby!! Fox says that “aging is in” on TikTok while posting paid ads for wrinkle-reducing Xeomin injections on Instagram; consumers rail against terms like “anti-aging” while getting Botox in record numbers.

Paid subscribers, your contribution lets me pay writers $1/word. Thank you! (If you haven’t yet supported Smart Mouth and its writers, please subscribe here). New Episode: Bakery Boxes with Kristina Cho Chinese baking is both ancient and brand-new. And those pink pastry boxes? They're from the 1970s. Even if you remember it differently. Listen to Smart Mouth: iTunes • Google Podcasts • Stitcher • Spotify • RadioPublic • TuneIn • Libsyn By Kelsey Ogletree Back in the late ’90s, my grandmother used to feed me Ritz crackers and Easy Cheese as an after-school snack.

Issue 152 To subscribe to “The Cheat Sheet,” just enter your e-mail address below: To share “The Cheat Sheet:” Share The Cheat Sheet If you enjoy The Cheat Sheet, please consider chipping in a few bucks via Patreon: Support "The Cheat Sheet" I tempted fate. It’s my fault. In Issue 146, in pointing out the absurdity of a Course Hero policy, I actually wrote, “it kind of makes me respect Chegg.

Observations on love, culture, books, relationships and healing after a motorcycle accident–usually sent to you from the seat of a café while gazing out the window By Amani Hope · Over 2,000 subscribersNo thanks“Amani Hope's site is ever-growing. She has a bookclub and writes personal essays and recommendations of all kind.” “Amani has a burning love (the Aries kind) for good books, good writing and having the conversations you didn’t realise you wanted to have.

Spoiler alert: there are two kinds of crab in these rangoons. Well…I guess TECHNICALLY only one? Because imitation crab isn’t really crab at all, but pulverized white fish made to resemble crab, although sometimes imitation crab does contain crab extract for flavoring. Regardless, Jon Kung has a new cookbook out (get yourself copy!) and he came by and we made crab rangoons. For those who may not be familiar with Jon, he’s a Detroit-based chef and content creator and defines himself as “third-culture,” meaning that while his parents are immigrants and he grew up in Hong Kong, Canada, and the US, he never really felt accepted as American or Chinese.

Chet Baker was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He was born in Yale, Oklahoma, in 1929 to two musician parents. As a young teenager in the 1940s, he served in World War II in Berlin, where he first encountered modern jazz by listening to Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Kenton. When he returned to the United States, he went to study music, and by the 1950s he was performing with the likes of Stan Getz and Charlie Parker.

First things first: I hate almost all of Lou Reed’s music. The Velvet Underground, his solo stuff, the album where he dragged Metallica down with him — all of it. But I love Metal Machine Music. It’s beautiful; it sounds like birdsong to me. So this piece, featuring him talking to British music journalist Allan Jones about that album circa 1977, was somewhat entertaining. Maybe you’ll like it, too! Also: This Foreign Affairsreview of three new books by right-wing “philosophers” who want to tear down America and erect some kind of Catholic fascist state in its place is fascinating, mostly because I can’t figure out what role any of these men think they would have in the kind of country they dream of.